It’s the weather: Italy claims lead in world wine production

According to a report cited today on the website Wine Industry Insight, new data from the European Union says Italy has surpassed France to take to crown of world largest wine producer in 2015.

The story, written by Umberto Bacchi of the International Business Times UK, says Italy’s projected wine production is up 13% on the previous year thanks to benign weather conditions have resulted in an abundant grape harvest across the Mediterranean peninsula.

Italy’s overall wine production is expected to up 5% on the average for the past five years. That’s a total output of 48.8 million hectolitres (129 million gallons U.S.) say figures submitted in mid-September by member states to the EU Commission.

Bacchi’s story says Italy and France have long been the sole duellists for the title of world top wine producer, both in terms of quantity and quality. However, Bacchi reports, 2015 has arguably been a particularly favorable year for the Italians after Ferrari (Trentodoc) won the prestigious sparkling wine producer of the year award.

Spain is set to maintain the third place in terms of wine output with 36.6 million hectolitres (96.7 million gals. U.S.). Other EU states follow at distance: Germany ranks fourth in the continent with 8.7 million hectolitres, trailed by Portugal (6.7 million) and Romania (four million). Britain is last among the top 18 EU producers, with 470,000 hectolitres.

Worldwide, the US, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, China and Chile traditionally placed themselves between Spain and Germany producing from 25 million to 10 million hectolitres each.